Not applicable.
This invention relates to liquid dispensers and in particular to devices for dispensing quantities of liquids, such as cleaning and/or freshening liquids, from under the rim of a toilet bowl.
Toilet bowls require care to prevent the buildup of unsightly deposits, to reduce odors and to prevent bacteria growth. Traditionally, toilet bowls have been cleaned, deodorized and disinfected by manual scrubbing with a liquid or powdered cleaning and sanitizing agent. This task has required manual labor to keep the toilet bowl clean.
In order to eliminate the manual scrubbing, various automatic continuous cleaning toilet bowl cleaning products have been proposed. One type of product comprises a solid block or solid particles of a cleansing and freshening substance that is suspended from the rim of a toilet bowl in a container that is placed in the path of the flushing water. U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,309 shows an example of this type of toilet bowl cleaning system. The solid cleaning blocks have a short lifetime and the release of cleaning and deodorizing agents drops off as the solid block deteriorates.
Toilet cleaning systems that use a liquid cleaning agent have also been developed. For example, European Patent Application EP-0538957 discloses a cleansing and/or freshening unit capable of being suspended from the rim of a toilet bowl for the purpose of introducing liquid active substances from a bottle into the flushing water with each flush. Another similar liquid dispensing toilet bowl cleaning system is described in European Patent Application EP-0785315. This application acknowledges that one problem with the device disclosed in EP-0538957 is that as the liquid level in the dispensing bottle falls, the rate at which liquid is dispensed falls with time.
The dispensing device described in EP-0785315 was developed as a proposed solution to this problem, and includes a dispensing bottle with a structure that permits both the flow of liquid from the bottle and a return flow of air from outside the bottle to inside the bottle.
While the dispensing device disclosed in EP-0785315 provides an alternative to the solid block toilet cleaning systems described above and to the liquid dispensing device disclosed in EP-0538957, it also has disadvantages. For instance, the device described in EP-0785315 requires the use of a porous, liquid-absorbing mass (i.e., a sponge) which always communicates with the cleaning liquid contained in the dispensing bottle and is located in the path of the flushing water of the toilet. This system is unduly expensive to manufacture and cannot provide precise control over the volume of liquids dispensed in the flushing water.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved device that can dispense a liquid cleaning, disinfecting and deodorizing substance into a toilet.
The present invention provides a liquid dispensing device for suspension from a structure. The liquid dispensing device includes a bottle for holding a liquid, a base for holding the bottle, a dispensing plate integral with or attached to the base, and a suspension means for suspending the base from the structure. The bottle has a mouth and a closure for covering the mouth, and the base has a piercing post defining a feed conduit and means for opening the closure of the bottle and for placing the feed conduit in fluid communication with the mouth of the bottle. The dispensing plate of the base has an upper surface including a plurality of feed channels in fluid communication with the feed conduit of the base. The feed channels are suitable to convey the liquid from the feed conduit to a dispensing position on the upper surface of the dispensing plate.
In a preferred form, the liquid dispenser is suitable for dispensing a liquid from the rim of a toilet bowl. In this form, the suspension means comprise a suspension hook and a guide channel integral with the base. The suspension hook has an upper end hook portion that is placed over the toilet rim and a lower end that is slidably inserted in the guide channel such that the lower end of the suspension hook engages an inner surface of the guide channel thereby suspending the base and the bottle under or adjacent the toilet rim. In this preferred form, the upper surface of the dispensing plate has a collecting cavity in fluid communication with the feed conduit of the base and in fluid communication with the plurality of feed channels, and the upper surface of the dispensing plate also has a venting slot in fluid communication with the collecting cavity and an edge of the base. The venting slot permits ambient air to enter the bottle to displace the liquid dispensed from the bottle. The dispensing plate in this preferred form may also include a deflector secured to an edge of the dispensing plate. The deflector is dimensioned so as to be suitable to contact an inner surface of the toilet bowl when the liquid dispenser is installed on the rim of the toilet bowl. When the toilet is flushed, a portion of the flushing water contacts a dispensing position on the upper surface of the dispensing plate thereby washing the liquid into the flush water.
In a second version of the invention, there is provided another liquid dispensing device for suspension from a structure. The liquid dispensing device includes a bottle for holding a liquid, a base for holding the bottle, a dispensing plate integral with or attached to the base, and a suspension means for suspending the base from the structure. The bottle has a mouth and a closure for covering the mouth, and the base has a piercing post defining a feed conduit and means for opening the closure of the bottle and for placing the feed conduit in fluid communication with the mouth of the bottle. The base also includes a lower plate which extends outwardly from a wall of the piercing post. The dispensing plate is integral with or attached to the base in spaced apart relationship with the lower plate of the base, and an upper surface of the dispensing plate receives liquid from the feed conduit. The lower plate and the dispensing plate are suitable to convey the liquid from the feed conduit to a dispensing position on the upper surface of the dispensing plate.
In a preferred form of the second version of the invention, the liquid dispenser is suitable for dispensing a liquid from the rim of a toilet bowl. In this form, the suspension means comprise a suspension hook and a guide channel integral with the base. The suspension hook has an upper end hook portion that is placed over the toilet rim and a lower end that is slidably inserted in the guide channel such that the lower end of the suspension hook engages an inner surface of the guide channel thereby suspending the base and the bottle under or adjacent the toilet rim. In this preferred form, the dispensing plate is suitable to be upwardly inclined with respect to an inner surface of the toilet bowl when the liquid dispenser is installed on the rim of the toilet bowl, and the lower plate is also suitable to be upwardly inclined with respect to an inner surface of the toilet bowl when the liquid dispenser is installed on the rim of the toilet bowl. The spacing between the upper surface of the dispensing plate and the lower plate of the base varies along the length of the dispensing plate such that a first spacing between the edge of the lower plate nearest the inner surface of the toilet bowl and the edge of the dispensing plate nearest the inner surface of the toilet bowl is less than a second spacing between the edge of the lower plate furthest from the inner surface of the toilet bowl and the edge of the dispensing plate furthest from the inner surface of the toilet bowl. The dispensing plate may also include a deflector secured to an edge of the dispensing plate. The deflector is dimensioned so as to be suitable to contact an inner surface of the toilet bowl when the liquid dispenser is installed on the rim of the toilet bowl. When the toilet is flushed, a portion of the flushing water contacts a dispensing position on the upper surface of the dispensing plate thereby washing the liquid into the flush water.
In both versions of the invention, the base holds the bottle such that the bottle is supported in an inverted position with the mouth of the bottle projecting downwardly such that the liquid can be dispensed from the bottle by gravity.
Preferably, the bottle is shallow and compact to minimize the head space in the bottle. When the bottle is filled with liquid, negative pressure or a vacuum (i.e., an equilibrium pressure) exists in the head space in the bottle. After installation of the bottle on the base, a portion of the liquid from the bottle flows onto a dispensing position on the dispensing plate. When flush water washes the liquid from the dispensing position on the dispensing plate, further liquid is dispensed from the bottle and ambient air passes into the bottle to displace the liquid dispensed from the bottle. The volume of ambient air passing into the bottle may be controlled by venting slots or conduits on or adjacent the dispensing plate. In this manner, ambient air can act as a meter that allows for a linear and consistent release of liquid formula by assuring that the pressure in the bottle returns to equilibrium pressure after each flush.
The present invention provides a significant improvement over prior liquid dispensing devices, such as those disclosed in EP-0538957 and EP-0785315, wherein a sponge or similar porous absorbent material was placed in the fluid path of the liquid to prevent the liquid from quickly flowing out of an inverted bottle. As detailed above, the use of a porous mass in these prior liquid dispensing devices did not allow for precise control over the volume of liquids dispensed in the flushing water due to the variability in the manufacturing of the porous medium.
It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a liquid dispensing device that can convey liquid from a liquid reservoir to a dispensing position on a dispensing plate in a controlled consistent manner. More particularly, it is an advantage of the invention to provide a liquid dispenser for dispensing a liquid from the rim of a toilet bowl such that a controlled, consistent amount of liquid is dispensed into each flush.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood upon consideration of the following detailed description, appended claims and accompanying drawings.